When you find people who believe in you and tell you, “You can do it, you begin to believe in yourself.”

Self confidence is one of the keys to personal and professional success that I discuss in Straight Talk for Success. Self confident people have three things in common. 1) Self confident people are optimistic. 2) Self confident people face their fears and act. 3) Self confident people surround themselves with positive people.

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Last week I did a post on tolerance that had some quotes from Sherman Alexie’s book The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. I found some other great stuff in there about surrounding yourself with positive people. Check it out…

“Something magical happened to me when I went to Reardon. Overnight I became a good player.

“I suppose it had something to do with confidence. In Reardon my coach and the other players wanted me to be good. They needed me to be good. They expected me to be good. And so, I became good.

“I wanted to live up to expectations. I guess that’s what it comes down to. The power of expectations. And as they expected more of me, I expected more of myself, and it just grew and grew until I was scoring twelve points a game – as a freshman…

“‘Coach,’ I said, ‘I don’t think I can do it.’ He walked over to me, kneeled, and pushed his forehead against mine. Our eyes were like an inch apart. I could smell cigarettes and chocolate on his breath.

“‘You can do it,’ Coach said. ‘You can do it,” Coach said again. He didn’t shout it. He whispered it, like a prayer. And he kept whispering again. Until the prayer turned into a song. And then, for some magical reason, I believed him…

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“‘I can do it,’ I said to Coach, to my teammates, to the world.

“‘You can do it,’ Coach said, ‘I can do it.’ ‘You can do it.’ ‘I can do it.’

“Do you know how amazing it is to hear that from anybody? It’s one of the simplest sentences in the world, just four words, but they’re the four hugest words in the world when they’re put together.

“‘You can do it.’

“‘I can do it.’

“‘Let’s do it…”

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We all need people like Coach in our lives. That’s why it’s so important to surround yourself with positive people. When you find people who believe in you and tell you “you can do it” you begin to believe in yourself.

As Sherman Alexie says, “I wanted to live up to expectations. I guess that’s what it comes down to. The power of expectations. And as they expected more of me, I expected more of myself, and it just grew and grew…”

The common sense point here is simple. Successful people are self confident. Self confident people surround themselves with positive people. Positive people will expect a lot of you, and from you. These expectations will help you become a more confident person. Never underestimate the power of positive people. They will help your confidence and get you on the path to personal and professional success. Befriend all the positive people you can. Hold them close. Treasure them and their friendship. They will help you achieve your dreams.

That’s my take on positive people. What’s yours? Who are the positive people in your life? Please leave a comment giving them a shout out. Make it a great week. As always, thanks for reading.